​John Mein

John Mein

Principal

St. Mary’s Catholic School in Fredericksburg

St. Mary’s School is a well-established school with a great tradition that has had a positive reputation in the area for years. However, when Mr. Mein took over, the school itself took on new life. Enrollment has increased each year that he has been principal. The students, teacher, and parents love him and listen to him. He is well respected at the school and in the community of both Fredericksburg and Kerrville. More and more families desire to be part of the St. Mary’s family each year due in part to the reputation Mr. Mein has built.

In the time he has been principal, many capital improvements to the campus have been made as well as improvements in the overall organization of the school and personnel. Mr. Mein has greatly improved the technological aspects of the school and SMS education, bringing it into the modern age with interactive boards in every classroom and devices available to almost every student on campus as well as educating teachers on the latest apps and technological tools. Moreover, the safety of the school has increased by his addition of locks, gates, fences, security cameras, and protocols. Other improvements, spearheaded by Mr. Mein, have been a new playground, new teachers’ lounges, renovated bathrooms, new band hall, the addition of a challenge lab, and water bottle filling stations, to name just a few. His innovative solutions to many issues have increased our funding for these types of projects as well as increasing our enrollment.

He has also re-energized staff and the campus on a personal level. The teachers in general feel that Mr. Mein has their back. He is easy to talk to and the staff, as well as parents and students, feel comfortable approaching him with any problem or concern. He is not afraid to address the issue at hand, and usually quickly and efficiently gets to the source of the problem and takes care of it. There is never a time for an issue to steamroll, gain momentum, get out of hand, and cause grumbling.

Mr. Mein genuinely cares about the students and making them better citizens and Catholics. He uses any chance he gets to give a plug for the school and whether that be in person, one-to-one, on-line or in large groups. Mr. Mein is proud of his school and wants to support the student body and faculty in any way possible. He is a leader not only in the school building but also in church. He is an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion and is at the front of the church as a leader every week. He lives his faith in and out of the church and school. He encourages and molds our students into students of high moral character. He is a disciplinarian but a kind and sympathetic one who holds students accountable for their behavior and encourages them to always do better. He can be found working at all hours of the day and night in order to improve and enhance the education of the St. Mary’s students.